Saturday, November 30, 2013

Over at PJMedia they have an article featuring the big proponents of gun control. Here's one now:

Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence,
agreed, asserting that gun-control advocates want to “finish the job.”
“Momentum is on our side,” he said. “The will of the American people
will not go away. The original Brady law took six votes over seven years
to pass. We hope to achieve change even sooner this time. But whatever
it takes, if it does something real to prevent more people from getting
shot and killed, it’s worth it.”

Solidly on the side of the thug and adamantly opposed to the thought that your right to life or anything else implies a right to defend it. The kind of thinking that got Sens Giron, Morse, and Hudak where they are today.

The Republicans have a harder time doing the same thing. The typical Dem
has already signed on to the Green or Red agenda and any wannabe
candidate gets to talk with the union reps, Guido and Nunzio, about his
political viability or even his metabolic viability before going on the
ballot.
Still, if some Greenie wants to get on the ballot badly enough on a
platform of abolishing the use of fire, the R's would do worse than to
slip him enough money to keep him from getting discouraged and dropping out.
Post election the union guys know not to use the former candidates own
car. A Prius requires careful disassembly before being sent to the
crusher, and the presence of a resident in the trunk would probably be
noticed. Something on the Cash For Clunkers list however would go right
through with minimal inspection.

We are told that everyone there likes it so we should like it too. Except for a few hicks in upstate.

Did you ever wonder what exactly constituted "upstate" New York? Just a few counties bordering Canada, right:

This map is from Scope a pro-gun organization in N.Y. What passed here is legislation or resolutions opposing the S.A.F.E. Act which is now being used to confiscate dangerous assault weapons like the bolt-action Marlin 25N .22 rifle. NOTE: Albany county, the green one at the upper right, has also passed a protest and is now red.

The results mirror those in other states in which a large metropolitan area gets to impose it's views on the rest of the state. Here's a screen cap of the letter in case someone denies that wholesale gun confiscation is beginning anywhere:

Note that the only reason they can do this is because the gun owners registered their guns first.

Update: Well I waited a good long time before posting, but it may not have been long enough. Via ColoradoRKBA:

The Letterhead is fake. Its nothing close to what we use as the City or with NYPD.

So, I called our good colleagues at the Rifle & Shotgun Section.
They are well aware of the *****storm this caused all over the web.

This letter was sent to ONE person...for reasons involving his specific permit. He then changed it a bit to make it look like something it wasn't, and posted it online.

This from someone on Glock Forum who claims to be a Sgt on the NYPD.Still, a good hoax needs to be at least partially based in reality. Given that this takes place in NY, the plausibility is certainly there. Still, I wonder what the letter was originally about.

Further down on that page is a copy of NYPD policy regarding the SAFE act which says pretty much the same thing.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

A potential juror in DeKalb county GA discovered that the workstation used to enter information had, in the "occupation" slot, the opportunity to describe your occupation as "slave". Being properly affronted by the notion that this might actually describe anyone's circumstances, objections were raised, and the offending selection removed.

I don't see the problem. In the course of my life and career I've seen lots of people who described their situation as "slave" either to someone, usually a spouse or S.O.) or some institution, notwithstanding the institutions tendency to actually pay them for whatever it was they did.

Back in the day, slavery was after all cheap, not free, labor. Since 1865 inflation has taken its toll. I wonder what the real cost of keeping a slave in 1860 would be in today's dollars?

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Myself I'm a big fan of global warming, and I don't particularly care what or who is causing it. I got to ride the motorcycle to work today and that's good. Our Governor, however, blames fugitive methane, coming from gas wells that escapes past valve joints and other such places. This is accounted to be as much as 1-2% of the gas extracted from the wells. If you think a typically greedy capitalist oil and gas company wouldn't care about a 2% drop in revenues, you must live here and have a valid prescription.

Meantime, no less a source than the IPCC says that 70% of the fugitive methane out there comes from naturally organic sources. To make a real impact, the governor needs to be looking into controling these organic sources. I suggest installing afterburners on cattle:

Today's news is that Sen Hudak has resigned rather than face a recall. My reaction to this is to treat the announcement like a Klingon funeral.

The announcement came as a surprise as most of us expected her to hold on through the petition submissions, complain about every single signature, and then not quit until the total was accepted as sufficient and the election announced. Oh yes, and file a few lawsuits as well as a delaying action.

When a Klingon dies, a temporary truce is declared, and all his friends and all his enemies are invited to the funeral. Everyone with an interest in the deceased brings a cattle prod and at the viewing of the body, each gives the deceased a jolt just to assure themselves that he really is dead and not just jiveing everyone.

While I have great hopes for the veracity of the announcement, I won't believe it until I see the video of ex-Sen Hudak walking down the capitol steps with her desk plaque sticking out of the cardboard box.

In the meantime, I have a nice (small) glass of premium rum in front of me as I type this. Clink your glass against the monitor and drink to the end of tyrants.

Rumor has it that the next recall target will be Ryan Call, head of the Colorado GOP.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

We're now in the last week of the effort to recall Sen Hudak, and things are heating up. Evie just got $120K from assorted unions and other leftie groups while the recall effort has raised some $64K mostly from small individual donors.

Mike McAlpine says the recall effort is 92% of the way to their goal with 87% of the allotted time expired, which suggests he's slightly ahead of where he needs to be. The operative word here is "goal". Mr. McAlpine has always suggested that his goal was 25,000 signatures. 92% of that would be 23,000 which would be adequately over the 18,900 certified signatures needed. Internal checks suggest that the signatures collected are 99% certifiable, but a 10% margin is always nice so 20,700 total would be about the minimum.

If you're registered to vote in Dist 19, get your name on the paper. If not, we can always use more warm bodies out there soliciting. For signatures.

Actually this isn't quite true. Americans are getting less educated every year however which puts the blame largely on the public education system, which is where most Americans get educated. So to speak.

When I was in High School, ignoring the hardships of actually getting to the building, and took a math test, you were expected to produce the right answer. Methodology was taught, but if you wanted to use a Ouija board for a calculator, that was fine. We were also expected to be able to calculate the odds of the Ouija board delivering the correct answer two times running. Trust me; There are a lot of zeros to the right of the decimal point before you come to the first actual number.

My brother, who came 2 years behind me, got what was called "New Math". Using this technique, you didn't need the right answer as long as your methodology was correct. I went on to design missiles. He became an economist. Case closed.

In his defense, he quickly gave up on economics and become a successful businessman. As such, he probably now has a better grasp of how things actually work than Paul Krugman.

Americans also get dinged for not being as multilingual as say the Europeans. Back in the day this was because if you wanted anything, we probably made it better, faster, and cheaper than any one else. It helped that we were the only country in the world that hadn't been recently been bombed back to the stone age. Foreign language wasn't necessary. Everyone was learning English.

Today, if you want something, you come to America, and we'll tell you precisely which country to go to to get your product properly designed and built. What the unions did for manufacturing, they are now doing for education.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

The November e-postal is up over at Sand Castle Scrolls. Based on a challenge from Top shot, imagine looking at the bottoms of 5 beer bottles with "church key" openers hooked on to the caps.

Your job is to open the bottles by shooting the openers but NOT the bottles. Details and pdf of the target at Dannos.

Could be worse. I had an aunt by marriage who as a little girl would go
out to the dump with the family and shoot beer bottles with a rolling
block .22. The game was to set the bottles with the necks facing the
shooter who was expected to shoot the bottoms out of the bottles by
shooting through the necks. Time frame for this would have been the
thirties.

Wrote my Senators to ask them about repealing the ethanol mandate. This law requires the refiners to ass ever increasing amounts of ethanol to the gasoline they make on the assumption that gasoline consumption will continuously increase, thus keeping the mix from becoming overly toxic to your car. Alas, gas consumption has been going down as fewer and fewer people drive to work or can afford to drive anywhere else. The ethanol requirement is not tied to this so the amount of ethanol in your gas goes up.

Sen Udal finally got around to answering. It's in bureaucratese, so maybe I can translate:

-----------------

MARK UDALL COLORADO

730 SENATE HART OFFICE BUILDINGWASHINGTON, DC 20510(202) 224-5941

United States Senate

WASHINGTON, DC 20510

November 1, 2013

Dear William,

Thank you for contacting me regarding the renewable fuel standard. I appreciate hearing your views on this issue.

One
of my top priorities in the U.S. Congress has been to reform our
nation's outdated energy policies. As a member of the Energy and
Natural Resources Committee in the U.S. Senate, I focus on these issues
every day.

I get a lot of attention from Big Corn, Big Oil etc, which I don't want to lose.

I support a comprehensive energy plan that includes
responsible drilling for oil and natural gas,

More money for solar power plants and windmills, a percentage of which comes back to me.

The
development of new vehicles that can run on fuel cells, natural gas and
electricity, as well as new fuels such as cellulosic ethanol and other
biofuels will help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil while
creating jobs here at home.

Terry McAuliffs electric car boondoggle comes to mind. Cellulosic ethanol has never been produced in commercial quantities even though it's required of the refiners. They pay a fine tax for not using it and pass that cost on to you.

I
believe ethanol has an important role to play in improving our energy
security;

All evidence to the contrary notwithstanding...

however, I also understand concerns about the challenges
presented by increasing the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline. As
you know, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will allow the
commercial sale of gasoline that contains up to 15 percent ethanol,
otherwise known as E15. Though these mixtures are solely intended for
specified vehicles,

It will damage most vehicles on the road today...

I understand the potential for accidentally fueling
unapproved vehicles. The EPA is currently taking measures to avoid this
kind of misfueling,

When you fuel up now the pumps have 4 mixes and two hoses including diesel. This would add 3 more selections.

and I will keep your concerns in mind as I monitor
this issue. For further details outlining the EPA's policy, please
visit its website: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/fuels/additive/e15/.

I
will remain attentive to what you and other Coloradans have to say
about matters before Congress, the concerns of our communities, and the
issues facing Colorado and the nation. My job is not merely about
supporting or opposing legislation,

As a Senator I'd say that that should be a larger part of it than schmoozing the president's favored lobbyists..

but also about bridging the divide
that has paralyzed our nation's politics.

Have you ever voted with the Republicans? On anything?

For more information about my
positions and to learn how my office can assist you, please visit my
website at www.markudall.senate.gov.

Got a request from a lefty newsletter I get to demand that Facebook censor a bit more of their content:
---------------------------

Topless women aren't allowed on Facebook. But bodiless heads now are.

Facebook is no longer removing videos or images of people being beheaded, even as they continue to ban women for posting pictures of them breastfeeding. But what's going to scar you more — seeing a woman's breast or seeing someone butchered before your eyes?

This move isn't just stupid from a PR standpoint — it's also horrifically irresponsible, giving access to this traumatic footage to anyone with a Facebook account. Please join us in urging Facebook to reverse its policy and ban photos and video of beheadings now.

Frankly I thing the beheadings and the like should not only be permitted, but should be easily searchable. Lest we forget who or what the civilized world is up against.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Having gone back to work, I haven't been out on the street since last weekend. Today I got back out and discovered that the Hudak Brownies were out in force. More than ever complete with hippie chicks with tambourines and someone out on work-release from the local home for aging refugees from the 60's with a cowbell. Their signs continue to get stranger as well. One said "Shotguns for Signatures" on one side and "Selling your signature for $3" on the other. I asked where I could sign up for a shotgun and was curtly rebuffed.

More cowbell works. We were doing great. Several bikers and radio personality Peter Boyle, inspired by the D.C. motorcycle event decided to come out and hang with us at the 80th and Wadsworth site and everything there progressed peacefully. At another site however, the Brownies were noticeably more proactive, jumping out into traffic, shouting into peoples windows, and getting in the faces of those attempting to sign a petition. The police were called and the harassment ended. Why are anti-gun people so violent?

Saw one of the door hangers distributed by the Hudak people. Very professionally written and printed, the sort of thing the government might put out to warn the citizens of the presence of a rampaging rabid werewolf. Petition circulators were described as either identity thieves or sex offenders. Shades of the land shark skit from SNL. I'll try to get one to put up here in the next day or two.

Here we are. Click to enlarge to readable size. Dangerous aren't we?
Noticeable here is the ad hominem attacks by the Hudak folks. Not one had anything nice to say about her, just attacks on her opponents. I take that back. One gent had a sign reading "Evie Hudak hasn't taken my gun". I pointed out to him that he had left off the final word, "yet". Having the oversight brought to his attention seemed to put him out of sorts for the rest of the day.

Halfway through the process, signature collection is still on track, but warm bodies are needed. Having a smart phone or a tablet would be a plus. Volunteer at Recall Hudak headquarters at 11651 W. 64th Ave, 8AM to 8 PM seven days a week.